I completely disagree most vehemently with this author. To put it mildly, he doesn't have a flaming clue.
Imagine, a 15 year old schoolboy, confused as hell with his emerging feelings, thrust abruptly into the public spotlight, and a world of very serious and sometimes official hateful homophobia!
Is going to tell the world he is Gay?
Little wonder he kept this to Himself!
Who can know what goes on in a young man's mind, or what effect ensues, from bible banging stone age advocates, perniciously preaching from a pounded pulpit!
Then we wonder why the suicide rate among young males 15-30, is so bloody high!
Yes his sexuality, is his own bloody business, as is how much he was paid to revel his darkest most confusing secret?
Good luck to him!
I hope we can all of us, appreciate just how brave Thorpedo was in coming out, and hope that he can at long last, please himself!
At least that way he will know he is pleasing somebody; and hope, with the best will in the world, the man finally finds a measure of true happiness, wherever and with whoever that lies.
Enough with the endless recriminations already!
If those making all the judgement calls or adverse comments, just learned to mind their own dam business; Ian Thorpe wouldn't have had to hide or be hurt; or indeed, for all we know, made seriously suicidal!
Drink and depression, two sides of a symptomatic coin!
If I could just walk a mile in this man's shoes, before making any comment?
I'd be a mile away before I started to critique him, and be standing in a pair of shoes several times too large!
Rhrosty.

Standing up for minorities against blatant discrimination, knowing you are likely to "suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous oppression" always takes courage.

"Society should only ever change its ways because it is reasonable and logical to do so and not because it has been emotionally manipulated into it."

Quite so. And it is reasonable and logical to deprecate the persecution of homosexuals, to legalise gay marriage, to extend official tolerance to any kind of private behaviour between consenting adults, and to work towards a world where people like Ian Thorpe don't have to 'come out' because there will be nothing for them to 'come out' from; their sexual preferences -- or yours, or mine -- will be regarded as nobody's business but their own and their partners'.

Ok, now it's my turn to "come out". I'm heterosexual, male & married a female. I feel like so much better now, almost like a hero.
When I get even more brave I'll reveal my whiteness also.

Individual
I am heterosexual, female, and married to a male. And white.

Nobody has ever questioned, insulted, ridiculed or discriminated against me because of my race or sexuality. The day when my homosexual friends can say the same, and indeed when they can marry their partner of choice, will be the day when announcements like Thorpe’s are no longer needed. It can’t come soon enough, but it’s not here yet.

I'm male and heterosexual and married a female, your post made me smile, but in reality it could be heterosexual/homosexual and married to a female, I am sure you would not tell the media or anyone else of your liaisons, your wife would not probably see the joke at all, perhaps keeping the male liaison quiet and not telling the world would be the best way to go, keep in mind there are many men in marriage who are having the best of both worlds all due to that little word "quiet"